In order to improve the speed and reliability of identifying pathogenic bacteria in a clinical setting, ProteiGene and collaborators propose to build a system to detect patterns of masses that uniquely identify a bacterial species. BacID(TM) uses new technology in soft ionization mass spectrometry to measure high mass proteins that are particular to a bacterial species. MALDI-ToF (matrix assisted laser desorption ionization time-of- flight) is a sensitive, accurate detection technology that measures the masses of prominent intracellular proteins from whole-cell preparations. The system requires very little sample preparation and gives abundant information about mass biomarkers. Biomarker information is used to construct of dendrograms, or relatedness-trees, that act as a database for the identification of bacteria. As a Phase II SBIR effort, ProteiGene will continue developing the mechanism for commercializing the new MALDI technology by building a MALDI-ToF biomarker pattern database of known human pathogenic bacteria. The BacID system will be developed in prototype form and additional software for automated acquisition will be implemented. BacID improves upon existing diagnostic methods by requiring far less bacteria than conventional techniques and speeding up the identification process. BacID will work equivalently well for aerobic, anaerobic and mycobacteria. PROPOSED COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS: ProteiGene will develop a bacterial identification system BacID(TM) that consists of sample preparation tools, an OEM MALDI-ToF mass spectrometer, a data system and software for analysis of mass spectra, and a bacterial mass spectral database. ProteiGene will also provide training, documentation, support and maintenance of the system and software. The market is hospital microbiology and commercial diagnostic facilities. ProteiGene secured a letter of intent from a mass spectrometry company to help capitalize the final product development of the BacID system. During Phase II, ProteiGene will form an alliance with a major diagnostic company for distribution of the BacID system into hospitals and test labs.